Innholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2024 i Classic Racer

ARCHIVE There can’t be a racetrack that’s been more photographed than the Isle of ManTT course, can there? While you can recognise pictures taken at famous corners on tracks from around the world (thinkThe Corkscrew, Eau Rouge, Craner Curves, The Parabolica) with the race stemming back to 1907, surely the Isle of Man is the ‘circuit’ with the most recognisable corners ever, in all its guises over the last century or so. This flashback to 1955 and the Senior 500 Clubman’sTT is taken on the right-handed in Onchan Village opposite the Manx Arms Hotel on the Clypse Course, used between 1954 and 1959.Triumph-mounted rider Ian Atkinson has a look of steely determination as he powers past the gathered crowd on his way to 2nd place in the race.The Bradford Club…

In a significant loss for Italian bike fans everywhere, legendary American Moto Guzzi tuner Dr John Wittner passed away on February 15, in his Pennsylvania home, aged 78. Il Dottore leaving us will be felt not only in the USA, where the bikes he created were raced successfully to three AMA National titles in the 1980s by the team he established to bring Moto Guzzi to the fore again, but also in Italy, his adopted home for more than a decade. The saga of the former dentist and his various Dr John’s Guzzi racers reawakened awareness of the historic Italian brand at a time 40 years ago in the late 1980s when its profile was at its all-time lowest ebb, even among dedicated Guzzisti around the world. For the story…

It was a sight us Brits instantly fell in love with back in 1976: the pint-sized, 5ft 3in American jockey hustling the awesome red and black TZ750 OW31 Yamaha around Mallory Park. With its tubular frame and rudimentary Monocross rear suspension, slick tyres in their infancy and nearly 140bhp on tap, the screaming, tyre-spinning OW31 was more than a handful, but American Steve Baker just put his dirt-track experience to good use, took the beast by its clip-ons and rode the wheels off it. There were plenty of really top-class riders racing 750cc two-strokes back in the mid-to-late 1970s, but in 1976 and 77, Baker, the little American with the big heart from Bellingham, Washington State, who rode for Yamaha Motor Canada, was the man to beat. Ah, but what…

Carl Fogarty: the man best known for eating an ostrich anus on live television, right? No, no… of course not: 2014’s King of the Jungle may be best known to the British public for his bravery in the various bush tucker trials in the ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ TV series, but we recall his grit, determination, courage and balls (his, not some Antipodean animal) out on the track. Foggy is thankfully better known to us bike fans for his dominance of World Superbikes during its golden period: we’re talking the early to late 1990s. The list of riders he would race against and beat includes John Kocinski, Scott Russell, Aaron Slight, Pier-Francesco Chili, Doug Polen, Colin Edwards and Anthony Gobert. During his full World Superbike career…

PLUS: ‘WHATEVER HAPPENED TO’: ARTIE BELL – YOUR RACE PICTURES FROM ‘BACK IN THE DAY’ AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! * METAL MANIA! WE LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF SUZUKI’S RG500 AND YAMAHA’S TZ750… SHEENE MACHINE BARRY’S MANX NORTON BOOZY BIKES THE VLADIVAR VODKA 250CC SERIES RECALLED RACING CHEATS THEY DIDN’T, DID THEY? *The next issue of Classic Racer is on sale on June 20. The editor reserves the right to move things about a bit, depending on space available to bring you the best motorcycle racing features from across many decades! So don’t moan at him if something isn’t in the mag – instead, why not get a subscription? Check out page 22.…

ARCHIVE What can be said about hard-as-nails Jim ‘Jimmy’ Aird, legendary off-roader, Scottish champion and proprietor of SCOTT Leathers? We love these shots of Jim in action. Especially the splendid Nick Nicholls shot from 1974 which shows Jim riding a KTM 360 at a Newbury ‘scramble.’ How far both have come, eh? KTM these days is a front-runner in MotoGP, probably second only to Ducati and ahead of Japanese firms that once dominated the sport, meanwhile Aird set up the very successful SCOTT Leathers company. Jimmy – originally from Kirkcaldy, Scotland, would work with Len Thwaites at TT Leathers, based in Barnard Castle, near Darlington. TT Leathers were trailblazers themselves in many ways, producing colourful bike gear, some of which was used by none other than the Royal Signals Motorcycle…

Prior to 1954 there was nothing in the regulations for the Manx Grand Prix, or in the policies adopted by the organising Manx Motor Cycle Club (MMCC), to preclude previous MGP winners from re-entering, and the winner of the first two MGPs was former First World War dispatch rider Len Randles, riding a 500cc Sunbeam. A decade later came another multiple winner, the subject of this profile, the inimitable ‘Mr MGP’, Denis Parkinson, who took a hat-trick of wins in the 1936, 1937 and 1938 Lightweight events, each time riding an Excelsior Manxman. Denis’s MGP debut had been in the 1932 Junior race, finishing 29th on a Norton, so beginning a remarkable Isle of Man career which lasted until his winning ride in the 1953 Senior, his fifth MGP victory.…

Guy Martin, for all his achievements and accomplishments is a record breaker – during the TV series ‘Speed’ Guy broke several British and world records on land, sea, and in the air. His incredible engineering abilities and his skill in handling vehicles of all sorts – together with his extreme endurance abilities and willingness to ‘have a go’ – make him unique in the world of television and have turned him into a household name. But first and foremost he’s a former road and short-circuit racer and lover of the classic racer scene. Of course, any conversation with Guy tends to veer off on tangents, but they’re always tangents worth listening to, and he always comes back to where he started. So, let’s get a brew on, mention a couple…

PEOPLE There are people in life you meet that have an effect on you, even if in just a small way. After many years of being picked out of the gravel by Barry Owen, when he marshalled trackside, he would always come and find me at the end of the day for a catch-up chat to see if I was okay, whether I’d been racing or coaching… Barry’s ambition was to spend a day on track with me, so back in October 2013 he borrowed his son Rick’s track Honda CB500, and we had a day together at Cadwell Park. It was great. For those not quite in the know, I’m talking not about the Honda CB500 Four, which was a stalwart of Honda’s range from 1971 through to 1978…

ARCHIVE The argument will always rage back and forth – who is the greatest racer of all time? Valentino Rossi could make his play for the title when he made the switch from Honda toYamaha 20 years ago in 2004. Back in the late 1990s, Honda had built the most successful two-stroke 500cc Grand Prix machine – the NSR500 V4. Mick Doohan took five straight titles on it (1994-1998) and Alex Criville took the next in 1999 when Mick retired through injury. Valentino would make the jump to the 500cc class in 2000, and take the last two-stroke 500 title in 2001.Then the four-stroke age came again with MotoGP in 2002. Honda would build the RC211V a V5 andYamaha’s four-stroke successor to its two-strokeYZR500 would be the inline four-cylinderYZR-M1. Honda…

These days he might be better known for being the father of current Moto2 star Jake Dixon, but Darren Dixon was no slouch on a bike either – whether it had two wheels or three. Very few riders have switched disciplines between solos and sidecars while at the peak of their game (Chris Walker raced a sidecar a few years ago but only long after his superbike career was over, and he never won a championship on one) but, for Dixon, it seemed normal. “My dad, Ray, raced solos and sidecars, so that’s how I got into it,” he says. “He joined the Army for three years to save up enough money to buy himself a race bike. That was the only reason he joined the Army. After a while,…

After the 1994 season, the Duckham’s Norton team folded, leaving reigning champion Ian Simpson without a ride. “It seemed Norton had different owners every five minutes and they didn't understand racing,” he explains. “We simply didn’t have the right people owning Norton to make it happen.” As the reigning British Superbike (and Supersport 600) champion, Simpson was in demand, and had several options to consider. One of them was to race in the 500cc Grand Prix world championship. He recalls: “I got a chance to ride for Padgetts in 500cc Grands Prix. It would have been on the Harris Yamaha YZR500 V4 that John Reynolds had been riding – but they couldn’t pay me. I sound like a bloody mercenary, but I needed a wage! I couldn’t have afforded to…